Market Potpourri

Key participants in the solid waste and recycling industry gathered in New Orleans for the WasteExpo trade show, held in early June at the Ernest Morial Convention Center.

Attendees browsed a sizeable exhibit hall featuring equipment and services from industry suppliers and also had a variety of educational sessions from which to choose.

Several of those sessions focused on recycling issues and markets, including the developing electronic scrap and construction and demolition (C&D) recycling segments.

ELECTRONICS SURGE. Renee St. Denis, with the recycling division of Hewlett Packard (HP), Palo Alto, Calif., discussed the success that HP has had with developing and improving its recycling, remanufacturing and reselling market.

One step that has been successful has been the ability of the company to link up with Noranda, one of the largest mining and smelting companies in North America, to help process the material. HP has recycling locations in California and Tennessee, with a facility in Toronto opening this summer.

She noted that the value of the commodities in the equipment that is being reprocessed continues to fall.

While St. Denis and her company are approaching the problem from a manufacturer’s perspective, Kevin McCarthy, with the Recycle America Alliance, pointed out that his company, a division of Waste Management Inc., Houston, is "probably the only coast-to-coast electronics recycling business in the country." The company has facilities in five states and service partners in three other states.

While there are billions of pounds collected, who will pay the cost to recycle electronics, McCarthy asked.

Another key issue is the uncertain legislative and regulatory environment. At the present time different states have different legislation on the books or in various stages of development. These take a host of different tacks as to how to address the handling and recycling of electronic scrap.

MEETING THE C&D CHALLENGE. The issue of operating a construction and demolition (C&D) recycling facility was the subject of a session that touched on the opportunities as well as problems that can arise.

Greg Wirsen, with Green Seal Environmental Inc., a consulting firm based in Sandwich, Mass., stressed the importance of performing a detailed analysis of the operation as an initial step. Some of the steps that need to be taken in the early stages include identifying preliminary steps of market identification prior to initial capital outlay and determining the applicable processing concepts based on markets, value of recyclables and uses of extracted recyclables.

Wirsen also stressed the importance of the siting process. Issues that can crop up when looking at building or expanding on a site include the following: zoning; a NIMBY ("not in my back yard") reaction from neighboring property owners; accessibility; traffic; environmental issues; the distance to consuming markets; local, state and federal regulations; and the use of setbacks and other property visibility concerns.